(Updated with press release from Edizione)
by Stephen Jewkes
MILAN, April 7 (Reuters) – The Benetton family, which controls Atlantia with a 33% stake, told private equity funds Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) and Brookfield Infrastructure on Thursday they were not interested in their planned acquisition of the motorway and airport operator.
The project of the two funds, which did not submit a formal offer, came up against the ambitions of Benetton, which reaffirmed the strategic nature of their investment in Atlantia, whose integrity they want to preserve.
Edizione, the family holding company, said in a statement that discussions were underway with the American Blackstone, as a partner, to strengthen their hold on the Italian motorway and airport operator but that no arrangement was made. had been concluded so far.
GIP and Brookfield Infrastructure had announced earlier on Thursday that they had approached Atlantia, pushing up the Italian group’s share price by 11.92% in the morning.
The action still gained 7.08% around 2:00 p.m. GMT, which brought the value of the group to around 15.7 billion euros.
GIP and Brookfield, which specialize in infrastructure investments, specified that they had met with representatives of Edizione on March 3 and March 23 before presenting them with a formalized project on March 30.
They reached an agreement with the Spanish ACS, chaired by Florentino Perez, providing that the Spanish construction company could acquire the majority of the motorway concession activities of Atlantia in the event of the success of a possible offer.
GIP and Brookfield said they weren’t sure they could go so far as to present a formal offer for a company with an enterprise value of more than 45 billion euros, net debt included.
POLITICAL RISK
Politics also risked complicating the situation, as the Italian government has “golden power” allowing it to block certain mergers and acquisitions in the name of the strategic interests of the State.
“The transaction in theory would be distinctly complex due to valuation, political and financing considerations,” Kepler Cheuvreux said in a note, referring to any transaction involving ACS and its partners.
Alessandro Benetton was named chairman of Edizione this year, strengthening the family’s grip on its investments.
Florentino Perez and the Benettons are already associated with the capital of a Spanish motorway operator, Abertis.
Via ACS, Florentino Perez has already tried to buy the Italian motorway operating subsidiary, Autostrade per l’Italia, but he had to give up due to lack of support from the Italian government.
Atlantia ended up selling Autostrade, targeted by the public authorities after the deadly collapse of the Morandi viaduct in Genoa in 2018, to a consortium led by the public group CDP, a sale which should bring in eight billion euros. (With Francesca Landini, French version Marc Angrand and Laetitia Volga, edited by Bertrand Boucey)